Debut album from Northern Ireland's Trucker Diablo.
‘The Devil Rhythm’ is the debut album from Northern Ireland’s Trucker Diablo. The band began in early 2008 but constant touring during the last few years has seen interest from several magazines and musicians, with current Thin Lizzy frontman Ricky Warwick guesting on one of the albums tracks. The CD was originally released back in 2010 and included 10 tracks but has now been picked up by Ripple Music, a Californian-based independent label, to be re-issued featuring a bonus song and digital access to two live songs recorded during the bands performance at 2011’s Download Festival.
I was actually ready to dismiss the CD to the ‘coaster’ pile after just one or two spins but after leaving it in the player and giving it a chance I’ve decided it’s worthy of a place in my proper collection……but only just. The songs are hardly groundbreaking and some of the lyrics are a little one-dimensional but these negative criticisms can be overlooked due to some good performances. The first three tracks, ‘Drink Beer, Destroy’, ‘Juggernaut’ and ‘Big Truck’ are very generic slabs of pub rock but if you can get past the obvious love of trucking you’ll find that the rest of the songs have a greater depth and improved musical structures. At the back end of the album especially the likes of ‘Black and Blue’ and ‘When Angels Die’ display more creativity and some of Tom Harte and Simon Haddock’s guitar work is quite noteworthy. Granted it’s nothing the Porcupine Tree and Flower Kings fans will put their tea & biscuits down for but if you’re looking for something a little more basic to give you an audible fix then you could a lot worse than checking this lot out.
I can imagine Trucker Diablo going down a storm at the Rock & Blues or Bulldog Bash (though they are scheduled to appear at Hammerfest in 2012)…..it’s just whether the fans of two wheels (or three) could learn to love those with an obsession with 8 or 10 wheels!
Dave Bott
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